Katarzyna Sadej Mezzo Soprano New England Finalist, 2009	Audio of 2009 Concert Audition

Mezzo-soprano Katarzyna Sadej was born in Wroclaw, Poland. Kasia graduated summa cum laude from the University of Ottawa, earning her Bachelor of Music degree in May 2006. She recently completed her Master’s Degree in opera at the University of Toronto; she studies voice with Darryl Edwards. Her teachers in Ottawa were Ingemar Korjus and Joanne Kolomyjec. Katarzyna’s singing calendar has most recently found her in Taipei for Stravinsky's Les Noces;  Sulmona, Italy for Cherubino in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro; and Jerusalem, for the world premiere of A Call For Peace, composed by Sharbel Dalal. 

This summer takes her to Villecroze, France, where she will study exclusively with Dalton Baldwin and Lorraine Nubar. Kasia has already been an apprenticeship artist with Opera Lyra Ottawa, with whom she had her professional operatic debut in December 2005 as Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Credits with the University of Ottawa’s Opera Workshop include the Mozart roles of Donna Elvira, Cherubino and Second Lady.

In November 2005 she performed the national anthem at the prestigious 2005 Governor General Awards, accompanied by the National Art’s Center Orchestra. In March 2006, she won the Vivian Asfar Memorial Award for Vocal Excellence, awarded each year to one promising member of the Opera Lyra Young Artists Program (she was mentioned in Opera Canada Magazine's spring issue 2006 for winning this award). In February 2005, Kasia won the NATS competition in her category and received the Most Promising Singer Award. Kasia attended the Foliage Art Song Festival in Vermont three years in a row, and then the Academy of Nice in the summer of 2006 in France, both festivals where she studied extensively with Dalton Baldwin and Lorraine Nubar. She has participated in masterclasses and coachings with many of the world’s top coaches, directors and singers.

With the University of Toronto ’s Opera Division Kasia performed the roles of Bianca in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and Giannetta in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore and the title role in Handel’s Ariodante. She performed the Mozart Requiem with the Northumberland Choir and Orchestra in historic Port Hope, Ontario, and the Messiah in December 2007 with Toronto ’s Talisker Players Orchestra. Kasia made her debut with Saskatoon Opera as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto in July 2008 and recently became a member of Les Amis Ensemble of Toronto, for whom she premiered Michael Pepa’s Isomorphe in the Glenn Gould Studio in June 2008. She will reprise this piece on tour with Les Amis in April 2009 in Zagreb.  Kasia is currently attending the prestigious Bard College Conservatory of Music to study with Lorraine Nubar, Kayo Iwama and Dawn Upshaw in New York.

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